I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

SS-26 Iskander Cruise Missiles For Burma Army?

According to unconfirmed confidential reports Burmese Army has recently established a new
missile command aptly named “Missile
Strategic and Defense Command”equipped with short and mid-range
surface-to-air missile systems including the famed guided-ballistic or cruise missiles the Russian-made SS-26 Iskander short-range missiles.

The SS-26 Iskander missiles were primarily developed to counter the US-made Patriot anti-missile missiles which devastated
Russian made SCUD Iraqi missiles in the 1991 Gulf War between US-led alliance
and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Russian Army once used their SS-26
Iskander missiles on enemy Georgian positions during the Ossetia War between
Russia and Georgia in August 2008. In a devastating attack on a Georgian tank
battalion Georgia claimed that despite the heavy air-cover from Georgian Air Force a single Russian SS_26 Iskander missile strike had
destroyed 28 Georgian T-72 tanks and killed nearly 100 troops in one enormous explosion.

The Iskander (NATO designation SS-26
Stone) short-range ballistic missile is a successor to the Oka (SS-23 Spider),
which was eliminated under the INF Treaty. It was first launched in 1996 and
was initially designated by NATO as the SS-X-26. It is considered the most
advanced missile of its kind.

Patriot anti-missile missile.

The Iskander-M missile system was
officially adopted by the Russian Army in 2006. Currently Russian Army operates
only about 20 of these missile systems. Its export variant, the Iskander-E, was
sold to Syria (26 units).

The Iskander road mobile missile system
is equipped with two short-range ballistic missiles, which substantially
increases firepower of missile units. Each missile can be independently
targeted. System is capable of hitting moving targets, as target coordination
can be adjusted while missile is in-flight.

The Iskander has several different
conventional warheads, including cluster, fuel-air explosive, bunker-busting
and electro-magnetic pulse. Maximum range of fire is estimated to be 280 km.
Minimum range is 50 km.

The Iskander was designed to overcome
air defense systems. Missile files at supersonic speed, excessively maneuvers
in the terminal phase of the flight and releases decoys. In some cases this
ballistic missile can be used as an alternative to precision bombing.

Missiles can be launched 16 minutes
from traveling or 4 minutes from highest readiness. The second missile can be
launched in less than a minute once the first missile is launched.

The transport-erector-launcher (TEL)
vehicle uses MZKT-7930 Astrolog 8x8 high mobility chassis. It is powered by the
YaMZ-846 diesel engine, developing 500 hp. Vehicle can be airlifted by the
An-124 transport aircraft.

The Iskander TEL is supported by a
reloading vehicle, based on the same 8x8 chassis, which carries two reload
missiles. Full missile system also includes command vehicle, information
preparation vehicle, maintenance and repair vehicle and life support vehicle.
All of these vehicles are based on KamAZ 6x6 trucks.

Present variants of SS-26 Iskanders are
as follows:

Iskander-E: export version, specially designed to meet MTCR restrictions. It a
maximum range of 280 km. This missile is fitted with internal guidance system
and has a CEP of 30 - 70 m. This missile system has been exported to Syria (26
units);

Iskander-M: improved version adopted by the Russian Army. Its estimated maximum
range is 400 km. It is worth mentioning that this range can be extended,
however this will violate INF Treaty. This ballistic missile is also fitted
with both internal and optical guidance and has significantly improved firing
accuracy. It has a claimed CEP of only 2 m. Optical seeker provides self-homing
capability. This improved version can also launch R-500 Iskander-K cruise
missiles in the same manner as ballistic missiles. This cruise missile has a
range of 500 km.

December 27, 2013: Although Russia is
in the process spending a trillion dollars to replace its Cold War (1947-91)
era weapons it still has some new stuff from the 1980s that it believes in but
cannot get any export sales for. An example of this is the SS-26 (9M723K1, or
"Iskander") ballistic missile.

The Iskander began development near the
end of the Cold War. The first successful launch took place in 1996 and it
entered service in 2005. The 4.6 ton Iskander M has a solid fuel rocket motor
and a range of 400 kilometers, with a 710 kg (1,500 pound) warhead.

The missile can be stored for up to ten
years. Russia produces several different types of warheads, including cluster
munitions, thermobaric (fuel-air explosive) and electro-magnetic pulse
(anti-radar, and destructive to electronics in general.)

There is also a nuclear warhead, which
is not exported. Guidance is very accurate, using GPS, plus infrared homing for
terminal guidance. The warhead will land within 10 meters (31 feet) of the aim
point.

One unique feature of Iskander is that
it is not a traditional ballistic missile. That is, it does not fire straight
up, leave the atmosphere, then come back down, following a ballistic
trajectory.

Instead, Iskander stays in the
atmosphere and follows a rather flat trajectory. It is capable of evasive
maneuvers and deploying decoys. This makes it more difficult for anti-missile
systems to take it down. Russia has admitted that it could use Iskander to
destroy the planned East Europe U.S. anti-missile systems in a pre-emptive
attack.

Russia is buying a special version
(Iskanders-M) for its own military. This version has a longer range (400
kilometers) than the export version and more countermeasures (to interception).
Russia will not provide details on the electronics. Iskanders are carried in a
truck which also provides a launch platform. There is also a reload truck that
carries two missiles.

Russia developed the solid fuel
Iskander to replace its Cold War era SS-23 battlefield ballistic missiles
(which in turn had replaced SCUD, which was derived from the first military
ballistic missile, the World War II German V-2). The SS-23 had to be withdrawn
from service and destroyed by 1991, because the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear
Forces (INF) treaty prohibited missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,300
kilometers.

When post-Cold War financial problems
slowed down development of Iskander Russia was left dependent on the shorter
range (120 kilometers) SS-21 system, along with some aging SCUDS, for
battlefield ballistic missile support. Russia used some of these older missiles
against Chechen rebels in the 1990s, along with a few Iskanders. The Iskanders
were more effective. But the Iskanders cost more than a million dollars each, which
is several times more than what SCUDs go for.

Some Iskanders were used against
Georgia in 2008. Also that year, Russia threatened to send some to Kaliningrad,
as a way to threaten the new NATO anti-missile system being built in Poland (to
protect Europe from Iranian missiles). In 2009 Russia agreed to not send the
missile to Kaliningrad, because the U.S. had decided against setting up the
anti-missile system in East Europe.

Until the last few years Russia was not
able to buy many of these missiles itself, even though they have been available
since 2005. But since 2010 there has been a lot more money available for arms
purchases, and Iskander is seen as something worth spending more on for
procurement and further development.

Russia originally planned to build at
least five brigades of Iskander (60 launchers in total, each with two missiles,
plus reloads, which could amount to over a 150 missiles). Each 8x8, 40 ton
launcher carries two missiles and a crew of three. Iskander was just entering
mass production in 2009, and only two brigades were believed in service then.
One was deployed near St Petersburg, much to the consternation of nearby
Estonia. In 2010, six systems were built.

Russia decided to buy at least 120
Iskanders if only to keep it in production until some export customers could be
found. Initially, Syria, Kuwait, South Korea, India, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore,
Myanmar (Burma), and the United Arab Emirates expressed some interest in
Iskander.

The export version, Iskander-E, would
have a shorter range (280, instead of 400 kilometers) and fewer countermeasures
for the warhead. But so far only Iran has expressed willingness to buy, but
this is unlikely because of international sanctions against sending offensive
weapons to Iran.

Satellite photos recently revealed that some Iskanders had
been quietly stationed on the eastern border of Russia, aimed at something in
East Europe or parts of West Europe.